1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a wireless communication unit imparting a function of wireless communication to a main device by being connected thereto.
2. Description of the Related Art
Heretofore, as a wireless communication unit, a PC wireless communication card has been well known. The PC wireless communication card is connected to a general-purpose card connector (for example, PC Card Standard Type 2) of a computer and used.
Meanwhile, a communication driver program for the PC wireless communication card is installed in the computer. The communication driver program controls the PC wireless communication card in response to a communication request such as an AT command generated from an application program and the like, and establishes wireless communication.
Incidentally, mainly in the field of press, there has been an increasing demand that image data imaged by an electronic camera be wirelessly communicated.
In this case, a user moves the image data in the electronic camera to the computer for a while by use of a serial cable or a recording-medium as a medium. Next, the user transmits the image data to a remote place (such as a wireless base station) by use of the PC wireless communication card connected to the computer.
In such wireless communication, normal wireless communication cannot be expected in some cases due to a propagation condition of electric waves or a state a power source of an equipment is in. Therefore, the user has had to sort and store the already transmitted image data for a while without deleting the same immediately. Moreover, the user occasionally has had to delete the already transmitted image data thus accumulated. Since such work is troublesome, it has been difficult to readily perform wireless communication by use of the conventional wireless communication unit.
Furthermore, in the wireless communication as described above, a computer including the general-purpose connector is additionally required. Also from this point of view, it has been difficult to readily perform wireless communication by use of the conventional wireless communication unit.
Note that the above-described issue may be solved to some extent by providing a general-purpose card connector in the electronic camera to directly connect the PC wireless communication card thereto. However, a different problem will arise in which the electronic camera becomes larger by an amount of the general-purpose card connector provided and that the communication driver program or communication software must be installed in the electronic camera.